


In Recompense

by AngelQueen



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Gen Fic, Missing Scenes, episode-related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-10
Updated: 2011-04-10
Packaged: 2017-10-17 21:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/181317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelQueen/pseuds/AngelQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happened to Sora?</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Recompense

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Stargate Episode Ficathon (http://community.livejournal.com/sg_ep_ficathon). Spoilers only for the first season.
> 
> Disclaimer: SGA does not belong to me.

When her people had fled and the Atlanteans had secured the city, Sora had no idea what was going to happen to her. She was certain that she would not be treated as the Genii treated their political prisoners. Teyla was not the kind of person to consent to the use of crippling drugs and devices in interrogation, nor would she give her allegiance to those who would use those methods.

However, Sora was still not entirely sure what the Atlanteans would do with her. Doctor McKay refused to look at her, and even remained as far from her as possible, as though he was afraid she would try to harm him as Kolya had earlier in the night. Both Doctor Weir and Major Sheppard both stared at her, the former with an unreadable look and the latter with eyes that could have frozen the churning ocean outside the city.

Truthfully, Teyla was the only one to look at her with any kind of emotion. Not pity, thank the Ancestors, but there was some kind of grief in her gaze. Still, that did not stop her from offering Sora some of their food.

"Here," she offered, holding out one of the Atlanteans' nourishment bars.

Sora stared at her for a moment, but accepted it and said nothing in return.

Once Doctor McKay declared that it was safe to leave the central tower, Major Sheppard ordered Lieutenant Ford to take her to one of their holding cells. Teyla had accompanied them after watching the young man glance at her warily.

It did not take long to be placed in what the Ancestors had created to hold prisoners. Lieutenant Ford left quickly, eager to greet his returning comrades no doubt, but Teyla lingered for several moments, staring at her.

Sora stiffened. “I will not tell you anything,” she sneered, determined to show no fear before the enemy, and the enemy who left her father to die no less.

“I asked you no questions.” Then Teyla was gone, leaving Sora to sit in the silence.

She was left there by herself for several hours. Sora didn’t bother attempting to escape. There was a shield around her cage, and she had no experience with Ancestor technology. It was more likely she would just harm herself than she would set herself free. Also, even if she did escape, there was no way she could get through the Ring of the Ancestors. Not with the rest of the Atlanteans returning to secure the city.

Occasionally, she had a single visitor, a soldier who brought her food. He flipped off the force field, sat the tray down, and slid it through the slats. Without so much as a word or even a look in her direction, he would raise the field again and walk out.

Sora wasn’t completely certain about the passage of time, but after the soldier came with three meals, the silence was broken by new visitors, Doctor Weir, Major Sheppard, and Teyla.

Doctor Weir clearly did not wish to waste any time. “Sora,” she said, “your people’s incursion into this city has failed. Given that your commander saw fit to leave you behind, you are what our world classifies as a prisoner of war.” The disgusted expression on her face left Sora to wonder if it was Doctor Weir's opinion of Commander Kolya or herself that so revolted her. The thunderous look on Major Sheppard’s face made her think that it had something to do with the latter.

Sora stared at her. She contemplated maintaining her silence, but shrugged it off. She might as well get what little information she could out of her captors.

“What do you intend to do with me?” she asked, struggling to maintain her confidence.

It was Major Sheppard who answered her. “The way we see it, you’ve got two options. One, you can stay right where you are and rot away. Normally, I’d stop right there, but that would just make you a drain on our resources,” he said. “Two, you can make yourself useful and help with the repairs around here.” Sheppard stared at her. “You would, of course, be watched very closely. It would be really stupid for you to try anything.”

Sora did her best to ignore the man’s cutting remarks. He'd just spent hours playing a dangerous game with the most vicious Genii warrior in several generations with the lives of his friends hanging in the balance.

Instead, she focused on her choices. She was tempted to remain in her cell, just to spite them. Let them clean the city they had annexed without any right to it themselves. Still, staying here would only be an annoyance to them, and certain path to madness for her. She wasn’t sure how long she could stand the constant silence. Looking at Doctor Weir and Teyla offered her no guidance. Both women's faces were completely emotionless, which was strange. Sora had always seen some kind of emotion on Teyla's face in the past, be it happiness, rage, or any other. Doctor Weir herself had shown many emotions throughout the night of her captivity, but not now.

“I know nothing of Ancestor technology, but I will do as you ask,” Sora stated, sighing.

“Teyla has agreed to work with you. If she gives you an order, you will be expected to follow it,” Doctor Weir said sternly.

“Of course.” Again, she glanced at Teyla. The Athosian still seemed like an immovable rock, but Sora was certain she detected something beneath her mask. She just could not see what.

Teyla said nothing, and left with her friends, leaving Sora to wonder.

Was this her life now? Slave labor for the Atlanteans? Led out of her cage when she was needed, and kept confined when she was not? Sora rebelled at the thought, wanting to deny it and escape, but logically, she knew it was useless. These were her circumstances now. A prisoner of war, as Doctor Weir had stated.

Teyla was the only one among the Atlanteans that she knew, and she was an enigma now. Much of the woman Sora had known all her life, the young girl who had accompanied her father on numerous trading expeditions, had changed. Teyla had thrown her lot in with these strangers from so far away, and from such a different background than their own. Why? How could these people even begin to comprehend life under the constant threat of Wraith attack?

From what Sora understood, the Atlanteans had lived free from fear of outside intervention. They came here with a sense of superiority and in their hubris had wreaked havoc on all the worlds of this galaxy. Why did Teyla ally herself with them, instead of seeking blood in recompense for their actions?

These people were a conundrum. Nevertheless, she was stuck with their company indefinitely. Sora had no illusions that Cowen or Kolya would seek to bring about her freedom. Perhaps this was a chance to understand these fellow children of the Ancestors.

* * *

They made her sweep salt.

Sora supposed her situation could be worse than bringing to life a foolish children’s rhyme about an old maid who swept her floor of dirt everyday. Sweeping salt from the piers undamaged by the storm was not an exacting assignment.

Truthfully, the only reason it was so irritating was the fact that Teyla sat nearby, just staring at her silently.

Sora did her best to ignore her. She had so many questions that she wished to ask, but she had no intention of behaving like a timid little child who begged for answers from her taskmaster. She continued sweeping, keeping her eyes on the metal flooring.

“Why did you come here?”

Sora’s head snapped up. “What?”

Teyla still had not moved and continued to stare at her. “Why did you come here?” she repeated.

She stared at the Athosian. “I thought I made that obvious,” she replied bitterly. “Did I not declare my intentions when I thrust my father’s dagger in your face?”

“I am aware of your desire to avenge your father, but that was not why you followed Commander Kolya to Atlantis.” Teyla’s tone remained perfectly reasonable, as though they were discussing the results of last year’s grain harvest.

“I followed the orders of my leader,” Sora stated, her frustration growing. Her grip tightened on the broom. “Cowen demanded that Atlantis be brought under the command of the Genii, so I came. My people would have benefited greatly by having the city of the Ancestors under our control.”

Teyla shook her head. “Cowen has his own agenda. Whether or not it has anything to do with the good of the Genii remains to be seen. You are far too intelligent, Sora, to be a blind follower. Why?”

 _“Why does it matter?”_ Sora completely lost any restraint she had. Her hands and the broom began to shake and it was only through sheer will did she not hurl it in Teyla’s direction. “I am a prisoner here, and yet these people do not behave as most people that I know of do. They do not torture me for information; they do not tell me of their plans to feed me to the Wraith as a sacrifice, they—”

“No. They do not.” Still, Teyla’s voice remained even.

Sora stood there for several minutes, staring at the Athosian leader, but she did not repeat her persistent question. Teyla stayed just where she was, watching her in silence. Once she had calmed herself, Sora returned to sweeping the salt from the pier and back into the ocean.

* * *

Sora knew her captivity would not last forever. The Atlanteans treated her as a phantom who haunted the city’s corridors, always with a soldier who followed at a discreet distance, but they were never deliberately unkind. If there was a crisis, she was sternly told to remain in the small quarters that had eventually been provided for her. She never felt any reason to disobey.

She never saw Teyla through any of this. Sora might be tempted to think that the other woman was avoiding her, but surely Teyla was above that?

Eventually, the Wraith came. Her guard was called to defend the city, and Sora, for reasons she could not fathom, felt compelled to follow him. The soldier in charge of handing out weapons gave her a long, measuring look before he handed her one of their guns.

“Doctor Weir must trust you,” were his only words. Sora did not understand what he meant, but as she followed the rest of the men into the depths of the city, she ceased to care. She smiled coldly. _This_ was what she had been trained to do.

She had been trained to kill.

The gun was fairly effective, but she eventually ran out of ammunition. She took to hand-to-hand, aided by the soldiers she had stayed close to. Her lessons with Kolya had not been forgotten, and while her strength was no match for the Wraith, her speed and agility were enough to lure it into place so the Atlanteans could kill it.

But suddenly, she was called back. The crackling of their crude communications devices made all of them jump. According to the soldiers, the new commander, a military man newly-arrived from the Atlanteans’ homeworld, wished to speak with her. Sora tried not to roll her eyes. The man wished to have a discussion when the city was but a breath away from falling to the Wraith? Where was Doctor Weir? She was not so foolish to make such a mistake. Still, she had no choice. Sora cautiously made her way back toward the control room, walking along the trail of bodies she had helped create.

Her questions were answered once she arrived. The new commander, an arrogant man called Colonel Everett, took her into Doctor Weir's office and bluntly informed her of the situation.

“Doctor Weir went off-world, at great personal risk, to negotiate with your people for their nuclear weapons,” he stated, seating himself behind Doctor Weir’s desk. “They’ve agreed, but in exchange, they want you returned. Our handing you over is the only thing they would agree on.”

Sora stared at him calmly, but her mind raced. Her people no doubt thought that this was a chance to gain first-hand intelligence of the Atlanteans.

Her knowledge didn’t matter, though. The Atlanteans had obviously found a way to contact their homeworld. No doubt they would be bringing more supplies, more soldiers, more everything. Any information she could give her people would be out-of-date, if they survived this assault, that is.

Finally, Sora nodded. “I am prepared.”

“Good,” the colonel answered immediately. "Let's go."

She glanced down at herself. Sora had been provided with clothing made by the Athosians, and she had discarded her uniform long ago. She even wore the vests that the soldiers used for protection. She likely looked more Atlantean than Genii. Her superiors would not take kindly to that.

Sora straightened. She would deal with that soon enough. Everett moved past her and she followed him. She hurried down the steps toward the Ancestral ring, which had been activated to allow her through. It looked the same as any other ring, but what still struck Sora was the features around it, the room itself. This was the city of the Ancestors. Even now, it did not fail to awe her.

For the briefest of moments, Sora hesitated and looked around, hoping she might see Teyla watching her. She wasn’t.

Sora stepped through, leaving the city behind.


End file.
